Super Bowl was most-watched show in American history

As my radio show progressed today, in the aftermath of the Super Bowl, I followed the track of the commercials plus the ratings. By 2 p.m., what I had already covered, changed a bit.

The New England Patriots loss to the New York Giants was epic. By that, it was the most-watched TV show in American history, but it didn't start the day that way.

No it did not. As I started my show at 10 a.m. CT, it was just the third best with the last year's game being No. 1. By 2 p.m. CT, it claimed the top spot. The average viewer ship was 111.3 million and that beat the previous best by .3 (Green Bay vs Pittsburgh Steelers checked in with 111 million, on average).

That is close but is it close enough for a recount? Here was the headline from a NBC release: 111.3 Million Watch Super Bowl XLVI, Tops Last Year’s Super Bowl (111.0 Million). Nice. The coveted post-Super Bowl spot garnered 37.6 million and "The Voice" was heard. At least on Sunday night it was.

As for the commercials, here is how TiVO ranked them by fan use and favorites:

The top ten commercials during this year's game according to TiVo were:

1. Doritos - "Man's Best Friend"

2. M&Ms - "Ms. Brown"

3. Doritos - "Sling Baby"

4. Pepsi - "King's Court"

5. Volkswagen - "The Dog Strikes Back"

6. NFL New Fantasy Game - "Win a Million Bucks"

7. Acura NSX - "Seinfeld"

8. FIAT 500 - "Supermodel"

9. Chevy Camaro - "Happy Grad"

10.E*Trade Baby - "Fatherhood"

TiVo is the only second-by-second audience research service which ranks these top ten commercials based on actual commercial retention and viewership relative to the program viewership numbers. That was from TiVo themselves.

Then there is this stat which is the number of people in the United States who watched part of the game. The 2011 NFL season concluded with another television milestone as Super Bowl XLVI on NBC reached a total audience of 166.8 million viewers, making it the most-watched show in U.S. television history according to The Nielsen Company.